A Great Sunday!

I just returned from the garden with RADISHES! Only three, but that is a start. And, actually one was cracked...but I have RADISHES! I wasn't sure when to pick them, but thought I would try a few! Check out what my garden has provided me with today:

Lettuce and radishes for a salad, mint for a mojito and for decoration, hydrangeas and a dahlia! Bon appetit!

I am so happy! I spent about four hours checking in on each square foot! I "weeded" the itsy-bitsy weeds trying to grow, and if needed, helped guide them up the trellis, or added compost to freshen up the soil. I also gave a few plants some food and sprayed neem oil to hopefully help with bug control. I also tried to tackle some of the weeds along the fence that were starting to encroach on my flower beds.

Here are updated pictures of how the boxes look!


Also, cucumbers and beans are growing!

While in Maine

I returned from my Maine vacation last week and was happy to check in on the garden. "Everyone" did fine while I was away for the most part (I had a friend keeing an eye on them). Weeds are now starting to grow around the fence perimeter so I will need to do some more weeding! I guess the good news is that the weeding among the SFG boxes continues to be very minimal! Here are a few more updates:

• the Sugar Snap Peas are growing like crazy; and along with the cucumbers, I am realizing that training them to climb the trellis is a little more time consuming than I thought.
• something is eating the leaves on a few plants, especially the pumpkin; I am going to have to get more proactive in bug defense!
  
• I have lots of tomatoes on all 4 plants, but none are turning red yet
• I harvested lettuce leaves off my Head Lettuce (good news since I was at first skeptical that it would survive after transplanting it from Home Depot)
  
• I have another Mandarin Pepper growing, however this one has small bumps all over it. I am assuming it is some sort of disease, but have yet to figure it out. Also, although this pepper plant has a lot of blossoms, many are falling off-stem and all. I am not sure if this is a natural process, or if something is affecting the plant. Thoughts? Here is a picture of the bumps I was talking about, and you can also see the two peppers side by side.
  

While I was vacationing in Maine, the local town was having an event, "Bloomin' Bucksport." The Bucksport Garden Club brought in a local author who recently published a book about creating a perennial flower garden so that you have continuous blooms from spring through fall. The book is The Ever-Blooming Flower Garden: A Blueprint for Continuous Color by Lee Schneller.
It was a great talk and she showed how her book was designed to really make the planning stage as easy as possible. Some of the plants she talked about were specific to the Maine coast (Zone 5), but I am sure her book covers all zones. Unfortunately, when I went to buy the book and have it signed, they were all sold out! So, I have to order mine online. Although the event's main attraction was Lee Schneller's talk, shops all over the town joined forces to give discounts to attendees. It was a great event, even with the dreary rain we had!

I am now off to the garden but will try to post another report later!

A Welcoming Addition

Just over one month ago I scavenged a Maine beach (shhh...) looking for rocks that I could use as garden markers. I thought it would be add some personality to the garden. I scanned Microsoft Word for the perfect font and searched high and low for non-toxic, waterproof/outdoor craft paint. Finally finding some at ACMoore and I hope that it will withstand all the rain we are having.



I was waiting for a sunny day to snap some photos, but got impatient! Here is a small sampling of how the markers look in the garden...




The past two days have been HORRIBLE!! It has been cold with torrential downpours and thunderstorms! I even think we had some hail early this morning!! Luckily my garden appears to be OK! However, I am off to Maine for a week of vacation. A friend will be taking care my garden while I am gone. Hopefully we will have the few days of sun they are predicting, but I also hope that my first veggies wait until I come back to fully ripen!! Think SUN everyone!!